QinetiQ technology is helping the European Space Agency (ESA) understand the fate of its Entry and Descent Module (EDM), which attempted a Mars landing on 19 October 2016. The EDM was never confirmed to have landed safely on the planet’s surface, leaving uncertainty about what happened to the craft in its final moments. Schiaparelli’s (The name given to this EDM) entry, descent and landing is part of the ExoMars 2016 mission.
Scientists at ESA are beginning to answer the questions by analysing data relayed by a QinetiQ transceiver on board the lander in the minutes and seconds leading up to its loss.
ExoMars is a mission led by the European Space Agency, in cooperation with Roscsomos and including a scientific instrument contribution from NASA, through Thales Alenia Space-Italy as Prime Contractor and with Airbus Defence and Space UK being the Lead Contractor for the Rover Vehicle part of the Mission.
ExoMars was supposed to cruise through space for approximately seven months before reaching its destination. Using QinetiQ’s UHF transceiver, the lander would have transmitted data from the planet’s surface to Earth via the orbiter for between two to four days. This project will provide important information for a second ExoMars mission planned for 2018, in which a rover will spend six months analysing Mars’s environment for signs of life.
QinetiQ’s ultra-high frequency (UHF) transceiver provided a tracking signal and telemetry during the entry and descent. The telemetry was recorded by the TGO for later transmission back to Earth, while the transceiver’s signal was also tracked in real-time by the Pune Radio Telescope in India and the QinetiQ-designed MELACOM transceiver on board Mars Express, operating in Mars orbit since 2003. The data is now being consulted in a similar way to that gathered by an aircraft’s ‘black box’.
The headlines may have focused on the loss of the Schiaparelli lander, but the space community is counting the mission’s many successes. The TGO satellite has successfully entered orbit and Schiaparelli achieved many of its objectives in testing technologies such as ours for use in future missions.
Sending data between two planets millions of miles apart is no easy task. Interplanetary communications equipment needs to be incredibly tough to survive the journey and operate effectively in the inhospitable environments of space and Mars’s surface. To prove that the transceiver meets the required standard, QinetiQ technology put the technology through rigorous test and evaluation programmes using their facilities in Farnborough, England.
Engineers at QinetiQ simulated landings on Mars in their vacuum chamber, by slowly leaking in gas to replicate the change in pressure when approaching the surface. They used the environmental chambers to test the equipment in extremes of hot and cold. Shock and vibration testing was carried out with Airbus Defence and Space in Portsmouth to make sure the system will survive launch and entry, descent and landing on Mars.
It is essential that anything sent to Mars is free from contaminants - the last thing a scientist wants is to ‘discover’ evidence of life, only to realise that it originated from Earth. Equipment can be ‘baked’ at high temperatures for tens of hours to kill microbes, although engineers chose to build this device for ExoMars in completely sterile rooms instead. Swabs are then taken and analysed to confirm it meets the programme and UN planetary protection requirements.
Historically, data was sent directly from Mars to Earth at speeds similar to the old dial-up internet - several kilobits per second. The introduction of orbiters like the one being used in the ExoMars mission enable speeds up to two megabits per second over the shorter distance from the surface to the orbiter. The data is stored on the orbiter and then transferred back when the spacecraft sees the dedicated ground station on the Earth. This communication session lasts in the order of eight hours.
Currently the communications sessions are managed by multiple point to point links - Mars to orbit, Mars orbit to Earth. This is organised by using teams of people in space operations rooms on Earth. However, QinetiQ is moving toward a network-based infrastructure, similar to Earth’s terrestrial systems. These systems are currently being developed and standardised by international space agencies, including the UK. The communications system for ExoMars is developed to these international specifications, allowing it to communicate with multiple orbiters from different agencies. Continued international collaboration will be vital in building a robust network that will one day support human missions.
QinetiQ technology is naturally disappointed that their transceiver didn’t get the opportunity to transmit for the full planned mission period, but delighted that its effectiveness has been so clearly demonstrated. They’re very proud that the mission-critical data it has provided is playing such an important role.
QinetiQ is currently building four more UHF transceivers in the UK for use on the Descent Module and Rover vehicle of a planned follow-on ExoMars 2020 mission.
For the latest news on Schiaparelli and the ExoMars Mission, visit the ESA website.
